What do Bill Gates, Mark Benioff, Ray Dalio, Jeff Weiner and Russell Simmons have in common?

What do Bill Gates, Salesforce CEO Mark Benioff, Hedge Fund Mogul Ray Dalio, LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner, Def Jam Co-Founder Russell Simmons and other have in common?

How Meditation Can Transform Your Business

As I read about more and more about successful As I read about more and more about successful people using meditation to stay focused, be more self-disciplined, discover wisdom, be non-reactive, and stay positive, I concluded why not me? https://peakwellnessco.com/ceos-that-meditate-at-work/

Meditation’s ability to relieve stress and increase productivity makes it a popular technique for promoting wellbeing in the workplace. Considering this, it is probably no wonder why many CEO’s incorporate meditation into their hectic lifestyles.

What exactly is meditation? And how has mastering it helped so many CEOs to master their business?

Most things in our life are outside of our control. We cannot control the world around us, or what other people say and do, but through meditation and hard work, we can control our own minds. A trained mind can be the best friend you’ve ever had, and with it, you can accomplish things you never thought possible.

Staying focused and resilient can be difficult, especially for overworked CEOs who live stressful lives; however, research has shown that mindfulness meditation can boost long-term mental health.

The Science of Meditation

Meditation and mindfulness have been shown to ameliorate depression, high blood pressure, pain and anxiety, just to name a few. The science behind meditation points to the fact that meditation and mindfulness practices impact the hippocampus, prefrontal cortex and amygdala, which are the parts of the brain that control our memory, ability to learn new things, decision-making and fear response. In other words, you’re likely using these parts of the brain quite frequently as you complete tasks, plan ahead and confront issues with your job or company.

As we build the practice of meditation into our lives, those parts of the brain become more effective. They enhance our willingness to take risks and ease our reactions to potential stressors, both of which are desirable traits in a business owner.

Meditation helps you maintain a positive mindset.

It’s easy to stay positive when our careers are on a roll, but to be able to find happiness within, even during times of turbulence, is something else again.

With a cool, calm mind, you'll be better able to appreciate life’s simple pleasures because you are unconcerned by thoughts of when the moment will end or whether or not you will have a similar experience again. While our circumstances are finite, our positivity is something that can be endlessly harnessed.

This is all part of creating an abundance mindset. When your happiness comes from inside, and you have an infinite well of positivity that you can tap into at any time, the way that you run your business is markedly different.

Meditation teaches you to be nonreactive.

When practicing meditation -- sitting still and silent as your physical and mental sensations come and go -- you learn to observe, rather than react. By adding this layer of distance, we train our minds to respond rather than react, which helps us to gain a more thoughtful and holistic understanding of our situations. As the Association for Psychological Science reported, meditation increases compassionate responses to suffering.

As we become more compassionate, we are better able look beyond ourselves and our own immediate business interests, helping us to understand long-term implications and the unique positions of all stakeholders. We stop thinking in terms of winning and losing, and friends and enemies, but instead feel the commonality that we share with all of humankind.

In this context, seasoned entrepreneur and venture investor Chirag Patel told the Harvard Business Review that meditation had made him feel more connected to clients, colleagues and staff: “You start connecting to your customer as your family rather than merely a business transaction,” he said.

By increasing our capacity to empathize and decreasing our stress levels, meditation helps us thrive in all aspects of life, both personal and professional. Mental fortitude, insight and empathy are invaluable assets in any business, and meditation helps these qualities flourish.

Discover Wisdom through Mediation

Each of us has an inner core complete with all the understanding and self-compassion we need to stay peaceful and focused. Instead of being tossed about by our stress, meditation helps us learn how to simply observe our stressful thoughts. By detaching ourselves from these thoughts and making ourselves into observers, we can watch them float by like a piece of driftwood floating along a river. You see it and know it’s there, but it has no real effect on you.

This type of detachment allows us to acknowledge our thoughts and feelings without being controlled by them. Once those thoughts can no longer influence the way we think, we develop a deeper understanding of and love for ourselves, which we carry over into our self-care practices, personal relationships and business relationships.

Meditation’s ability to relieve stress and increase productivity makes it a popular technique for promoting wellbeing in the workplace. Considering this, it is probably no wonder why many CEO’s incorporate meditation into their hectic lifestyles. Staying focused and resilient can be difficult, especially for overworked CEOs who live stressful lives; however, research has shown that mindfulness meditation can boost long-term mental health.